Microbiologist who led research into the common cold

Born: July 30, 1930;

Died: May 14, 2019

DR Michael Rossmann, who has died aged 88, was a pioneering microbiologist who in 1988 led a team that researched the common cold virus. His scrupulous analytical work uncovered the structure of the virus but the advances also led to further important research, especially on Aids and viruses thought to lead to hepatitis, leukaemia, and certain tumours. For a time, he was a lecturer and researcher in Glasgow working under J Monteith Robertson, the eminent Gardiner Professor of Chemistry at Glasgow University who was a pioneer in the field of X-ray crystallography.

Later in his career, Rossmann also helped to determine the structure of the Zika virus which was reaching almost epidemic proportions in America. The disease was spread by mosquitoes and principally affected pregnant women. For many it was a mild infection and not harmful. But for pregnant women it could have serious consequences and required detailed examinations.

Michael George Rossmann was born in Frankfurt but his parents divorced in his youth and he was brought up by his mother and maternal grandparents, who were Jewish. He encountered much anti-Semitic behaviour at school and in July 1939 the family left for England – despite not speaking English. He attended the Friends’ School, Saffron Walden, Essex (1942-48) which was run by the Quakers. He settled in with ease and was an outstanding pupil.

From 1948-51 Rossmann read physics and mathematics at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London and obtained two external degrees at the University of London. He stayed on to obtain a M.Sc degree in 1953.

Rossmann came to Scotland and was appointed a lecturer in natural philosophy where he taught physics at the Royal Technical College (now the University of Strathclyde). From 1952-56 he read for a Ph.D. on chemical crystallography under J Monteith Robertson. Under Professor Monteith’s supervision, Rossmann worked on the crystal structure of three aromatic hydrocarbons. The title of his thesis was A Study of Some Organic Crystal Structures.

He had happy memories of his time in Glasgow. Rossmann wrote some years later, “While teaching at the technical college, about a one-mile bicycle ride away I also studied the crystal structures of aromatic hydrocarbons, doing all calculations by hand.”

Rossmann then was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota where he worked for two years publishing various medical papers and computer programs for analysing structures. He returned to the UK in 1958 to the Medical Research Council’s laboratory in Cambridge. He did his research – with future Nobel prize winners - into the structure of haemoglobin in a tiny hut outside the main Cavendish Laboratory building.

In his retirement Rossmann donated to Purdue University a set of contour maps of haemoglobin, hand drawn with his hand written notes dating from 1959. In 2010 the university, in recognition of the scientific and medical research he carried out there over 50 years named its new supercomputer The Rossmann after him.

In 1964 Rossmann joined the staff of Purdue University as an associate professor becoming the Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences. He became full professor in 1967 and from 1978 was appointed the Professor of Biological Sciences. He held a joint appointment in the department of biochemistry and posts at Cornell University and Indiana University's school of medicine.

At all these academic posts Rossmann continued his research into enzymes and the structure of viruses. For his ground-breaking research into the common cold in 1985 the structure of the viruses was named the Rossmann Structure. Rossmann’s work was recognised in the UK when he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society in London.

His enthusiasm for science and research never left him. Rossmann was asked recently if science still thrilled him. “Everybody can recognise a human, but we’re not identical, and it’s the same with cells – they all share the same components but they’re not the same. There are lots of secrets waiting to be uncovered, I’m quite sure of that.”

Professor Richard Kuhn, with whom Rossmann often collaborated at Purdue, has written, “Michael was a giant in the field of structural biology. His work has made a real impact across the globe, and the world is safer from infectious viruses because of his dedicated work. Few people can say they contributed as much to humanity.”

In 1954 he married Audrey Pearson. She died in 2009 and in 2018 he married Karen Bogan. She survives him with three children from his first marriage.

ALASDAIR STEVEN